Mac Tools distributor Joe Hardin makes a point to check in with shop owners regularly, just to say "hi" and check on equipment. He is greeted warmly at nearly all of his stops. Still, every now and then he encounters a skeptic. He views this as an opportunity.
On one occasion, he had words with a shop owner who notoriously despised tool trucks. The shop’s technicians would regularly purchase tools from a bare-bones, online retailer before he started coming around.
“I told [the shop owner] ‘They’re going to spend their money and they’re going to waste their money [online], and at least they’ve got something they can make a living with for years if they buy my product. Furthermore, you’re paying them by the … hour. So yes, they are wasting five minutes, but they’re spending five, six thousand dollars’ worth of tools to make their job faster for you. It makes no difference to them if their job is fast or not. You’re the one benefiting from them buying tools from me.'”
Hardin adds, “I [remind] my guys, ‘Yeah, you can buy a cheap tools online. But who comes and sees you every week?’”
